In the chill pre-dawn hours, Japan's Emperor Naruhito emerged from a shrine compound where he had spent a symbolic night with the sun goddess from whom conservatives believe his family descends, completing the rituals of his accession.
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The "Daijosai" rite, centred on the goddess Amaterasu Omikami, began soon after sunset on Thursday and is the most overtly religious of all the rituals around Naruhito's succession after his father, Akihito, abdicated in April.
Amid flickering torchlight and chanting by priests, Emperor Naruhito emerged from behind the white curtains of the shrine about 3am, concluding a ceremony observed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and 400 dignitaries in an outdoor pavilion.
"This ritual is basically a feast involving the sun goddess and the emperor," said John Breen, a professor at Kyoto's International Research Center for Japanese Studies, who added that most coronations have mystical elements.
"The emperor is transformed by partaking of this feast."
Observance of the ritual has prompted lawsuits from critics ranging from communists to Christians, who say it smacks of the militaristic past and violates the constitutional separation of church and state, as the government pays the cost of 2.7 billion yen ($A36.6 million).
Persistent rumours have held the emperor has conjugal relations with the goddess, a view dating from the era before World War II, when the emperor was considered divine.
Naruhito's grandfather Hirohito was stripped of his divinity after its defeat.
But the government and scholars say the ritual is a meal, at which the emperor offers foods ranging from rice and millet to abalone and persimmons to the goddess in the final ceremony that seals his new status as emperor.
Soon after sunset, in scenes broadcast live on television, Naruhito was ushered through dark wooden corridors, shielded by a ceremonial umbrella and preceded by courtiers holding torches.
Empress Masako followed, in 12-layered white robes.
After disappearing behind white curtains into a dimly lit room, kneeling by the side of piled straw mats draped in white, the emperor arranged offerings for the goddess on 32 oakleaf plates.
Then he bowed and prayed for the peace of Japan.
Afterwards, they shared a meal of rice, millet and rice wine before he left the chamber. An identical ritual began in a different room about midnight on Friday.
Critics say that while a form of the ritual existed more than 1000 years ago, its current shape dates from efforts in the late 1800s to unite Japan around the emperor.
Australian Associated Press
